TITANIC: A STORY TOLD
Chapter Forty-One
The first class lounge was the most elegant
room on the ship, done in Louis Quinze Versailles style. Rose sat on a divan,
with a group of other women arrayed around her. Ruth, the Countess Rothes, and
Lady Duff-Gordon were taking tea. Rose was silent and still as a porcelain
figurine as the conversation washed around her.
Ruth was complaining about the wedding
arrangements. "Of course the invitations had to be sent back to the
printers twice. And the bridesmaid’s dresses! Let me tell you what an odyssey
that has been..."
Rose’s mind was elsewhere as Ruth went on.
She saw, at another table, a mother and daughter having tea. The four-year-old
girl, wearing white gloves, daintily picked up a cookie. The mother corrected
her on her posture, and the way she held the teacup. The little girl was trying
so hard to please, her expression serious. It was as though Rose was glimpsing
herself at that age, remembering the relentless conditioning...the path to
becoming an Edwardian geisha.
Rose calmly and deliberately turned her
teacup over, spilling tea all over her dress. She got to her feet, excusing
herself.
"Oh, look what I’ve done." She
hurried away.